


Pomegranate Seeds

by Night-Mare (Aoife)



Category: Islamic Scripture & Lore, كتاب ألف ليلة وليلة | Kitaab 'alf layla wa-layla | One Thousand and One Nights
Genre: Blink And You Miss It Reference To Chava | Eve | Hawwah, Blink And You Miss It Reference To Kore | Persephone, Community: intoabar, Gen, Mentions of Shahryār, Multiple Jinn, Pomegranates, References to Talismanic Magic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-06
Updated: 2013-12-06
Packaged: 2018-01-03 16:27:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 501
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1072660
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aoife/pseuds/Night-Mare
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A remix of the frame story with Jinn and pomegranates and something of a resolution. Perhaps.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Pomegranate Seeds

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: Iblis walks into a bar and meets ... Scheherazade.

The woman smiles, with teeth that seem _wrong_ , and places half of a pomegranate, the juice red, like blood, staining her skin, in Shahrzad’s cupped hands, and urges her to _eat, Eat, EAT_.

Shahrzad refuses, telling the Jinn that she learnt better than to accept food from the otherwordly from Hawwah’s plight and from the kuffir’s stories of Kore, and the woman of smoke and fire laughs and unravels herself, with the parting message that Shahrzad would have been glad of the help when Shahryar asks for her head.

But she can still have their help if she’ll just _eat_.

And Shahrzad walks to her doom with Dunyazad by her side, and stories of the Jinn on tip of her tongue. Her lips, she has painted with pomegranate juice till they are dark, blood red, to fascinate Shahryar long enough for a chance for her to enchant him with the first part of her story. 

There is another of the Jinn in the gardens, when next Shahryar allows her from his side. She sits beneath the oldest of the pomegranate trees there, eating the seeds of an impossible fruit, it’s blood-red juice trickling messily down her chin and hands. 

The offer is made, and refused without words, though the Jinn watches her hungrily as she continues to wander through the gardens. Shahrzad ignores her, rehearses the next night’s story, and prays for a child every time she kneels.

Shahrzad returns to Shahryar’s bed, position not yet secure, and she weaves her stories frantically in a bid to stay alive. She anoints herself with fragrant orange blossom oil, her eyes are now ringed in kohl, and she still paints her lips with pomegranate juice. 

When she tells her of the Jinn in the gardens, Dunyazad brings her a nafra-talisman made of lapis and etched with the names of the angels. Shahrzad clutches it so tightly that the edges cut into her palm and blood drips onto the earth.

There are no Jinn this time when she wanders the gardens. Shahrzad breathes a sigh of relief. But on the ground beneath the oldest of the trees there is a half-eaten pomegranate that the insects refuse to touch. It does not disappear until Dunyazad takes it beyond the gardens' walls.

There is another mercy, but she is understandably wary, and continues to gild her eyes and lips and spin her tales until she can no longer hide that one from Shahryar. 

He allows her to live.

There is a man who is not a man in the gardens, licking pomegranate juice lewdly off his fingers, when Dunyazad escorts a heavily pregnant Shahrzad on a walk through the gardens. Shahrzad grips her sister's nafra talisman tightly enough that her hand bleeds, but he merely laughs and congratulates her on her husband and her kingdom - and on not succumbing to temptation.

He leaves two last temptations on offer for _the_ consummate story teller; a perfect red pomegranate and a whole world of stories to be told.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Zenana](https://archiveofourown.org/works/3473537) by [Night-Mare (Aoife)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aoife/pseuds/Night-Mare)
  * [Who Walks Beside Her Sister](https://archiveofourown.org/works/10228895) by [Night-Mare (Aoife)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aoife/pseuds/Night-Mare)
  * [Sister to the Queen; Midwife to the Djinn](https://archiveofourown.org/works/10269563) by [Night-Mare (Aoife)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aoife/pseuds/Night-Mare)
  * [Sister to the Queen; Midwife to the Djinn](https://archiveofourown.org/works/10269563) by [Night-Mare (Aoife)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aoife/pseuds/Night-Mare)




End file.
